Hyväksymispäivämäärä

Tiivistelmä

The subject of this study is to compare Hayekian theoretical reasoning with the Finnish infor-mation society and to formulate the subject matter to public administration strategies for the development of the Finnish information society between 1995 and 2006.Methodologically, the study follows a theoretical framework that rests on the Hayekian notion of the creative powers of a free civilization. This framework is further extended with more con-temporary phenomena, e.g. open innovation, New Public Management and the idea of social capital. The methodological tools that wield the Finnish information strategies are essentially qualitative and converge to an approach of methodological triangulation or mixed method re-search strategies.The Finnish information society strategies have undergone an evolutionary advancement process where the creative powers possessed by single individuals have been portrayed in varying ways. Although the individual abilities have been utilized in the information age to create more value in the products and services in use, this tendency has been treated as a neglected by-plot in the Finnish information society strategies.According to the findings this study analyzes, the Finnish information society would benefit from more strategic functions based on the depicted theoretical matrix. By doing this, the stra-tegic processes would add on the number of organizational interest groups, attain more in-formation to produce better services and increase transparency. Consequently, the public or-ganizations would acquit themselves better for their appointed basic task and mission. Such a strategic operational principle would not only reciprocate with the extent of the operational en-vironment of the information society, but would correspond to the societal conceptions of Friedrich August von Hayek.